Jr do I need to p v a the wall first. I am going to dot and dab the boards and screw to the wood at the top and to the side stud on the right.

Would that be strong enough

Thanks

you dnt need to pva before you board mate.
screwing into the timber is good will give you extra strength, but on the brick work i would once the dot and dab has fully dried just put proberly between 4 to 6 mechanical fixings i.e drill and plug with a washer just to give it a bit of extra strength as the dot and dab wnt be very thick behind the board.
make sure wen you drill and fix the board after its dried that you actually drill through a dab not a hollow part of the board, just tap the board to locate where you can drill youll know wen you have found a dab. also make sure the screw head and the washer dont sit proud of the board, otherwise your plasterer will not thank you wen they dink thier trowel haha

Dot and dab was a bit messy got it every where. Jr got someone coming to skim the plasterboard tomorrow friend of a friend how many coats should he do. 1 or 2?

How thick should the plaster be?

How can I tell if he is any good. He is doing half tomorrow morning and half sunday morning

Thanks for the help

always 2 coats mate one coat is not the proper way to do it, if he does one coat and trys to fob you off telling you its right dnt accept it mate youve done this room to the book and spent too much time to accept a shoddy job.
theres a way plasterers tell how good anouther one is and that is, if you watch him work watch how he takes the plaster off the hawk onto the trowel, he should take from about half way, moving the trowel forwards im one fluent motion. you want to keep an eye on the corners and edges.
edges should always be cut back nicley makeing sure of no snots on the walls that arnt beign plasterd at the time, and wet corners should always be spread then internl run down the corner and the trailing lines pulled out before the next step is carried out.
if your a bit worried just keep an eye in the room evert now and then offer a cupp or sumit so he dnt get suspiscious haha but make a note of whats being done and how its being done.
take some pics of the first days work and put them up ill have a look if you like see if i can tell anything from the pics. good luck mate

He came this morning for a few hours and done the ceiling as he had to go out this afternoon I knew already about this. He is back tomorrow for the whole day to do all the walls.

He said he was doing two coats and I think he has done a alright job.

What do you think?

looks ok mate might be a few fat marks but it could be the moisture in the air picked up by the camera, is there no skrim joining the ceilin to the walls that will crack if thier isnt. lets see it once its all done some close ups and some from the doorway